{"id":36881,"date":"2018-01-29T06:49:10","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T06:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kagame-to-prioritize-africa-s-unity\/"},"modified":"2018-01-31T08:14:54","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T08:14:54","slug":"kagame-to-prioritize-africa-s-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kagame-to-prioritize-africa-s-unity\/","title":{"rendered":"Kagame to prioritize Africa\u2019s unity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kagame was speaking Sunday in the 30th AU summit that took place in Addis Ababa. At the same occasion, Kagame also assumed the chairmanship of the AU replacing Guinea’s Alpha Conde.<\/p>\n

In his acceptance speech, Kagame said that Africa has assets and strengths to build on, starting with African Union and its tangible commitment to unity. <\/p>\n

He said that unity is an advantage which no other region of the world possesses in such abundance.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnity must be our starting point as we work to re-define Africa’s plans and ambitions. These changes need to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no country on our continent that does not want to be part of a more assertive and visible Africa. The programmes, policies and priorities of the AU contain the right tools for the job,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

{{Three historic agreements for building Africa\u2019s wealth}}<\/p>\n

Kagame paid tribute to previous leaders of AU and former Heads of State for paving the way forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of their foresight, we are in a position to adopt three historic agreements of the highest importance for building Africa\u2019s wealth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said, Africa launch the Single African Air Transport Market, a major step forward for transportation. <\/p>\n

He said this year; they are ready to adopt the Continental Free Trade Area.
\nBy committing to break down these various barriers, we will send a tremendous signal in Africa and beyond that it is no longer business as usual.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur people deserve a brighter future. Their sacrifice and hard work should be rewarded with better lives for families and communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kagame thanked Heads of State who champion important themes and priorities of the Union at every Summit, by asking that they pay careful attention to their reports, and act on the recommendations offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish to commend the efforts of AU\u2019s professional staff which often goes unheralded. Your hard work and talent are greatly valued. We are going to be asking you to do even more going forward,\u201d he expressed.<\/p>\n

He said soon they will have the funds to support the African prosperity agenda. It means that the levy on eligible imports is being implemented; the Golden Rules were recently approved by Finance Ministers and have a more credible budget process in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have helped perpetuate the narrative that Africa is a burden. This way of thinking has been around for decades. Fixing it won\u2019t take a year, but it need not take twenty years either. None of us would be wrong to feel angry about the time and potential we’ve lost. But at the stage we’re at, we should choose to respond with discipline and facts, in order to re-focus us on our common humanity,\u201d Kagame noted.<\/p>\n

{{Message to Youth}}<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish to close with a message to Africa\u2019s young people. Elders should be able to enjoy the pleasure, of telling you how hard they had it at your age, to better appreciate what you have, and inspire you to work harder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Kagame said, too many Africans come of age in the same conditions as their parents and grandparents, and sometimes the hardships endured are even worse.<\/p>\n

He assured that the current job is to make sure that every generation enjoys a better one than the last. <\/p>\n

\u201cYoung Africans, men and women, you have a full role to play. For women especially whom we need to unreservedly accord their full rights and roles we cannot build Africa without you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kagame will serve a one-year mandate and will hand over the AU chairmanship to Egypt next year.<\/p>\n

\"Kagame<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Paul Kagame and the chairperson of African Union (AU) has said that unity must be their starting point as they work to re-define Africa\u2019s plans and ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72],"byline":[197],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-36881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","byline-john-mbaraga"],"bylines":[{"id":197,"name":"John Mbaraga","slug":"john-mbaraga","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":19}],"contributors":[{"id":197,"name":"John Mbaraga","slug":"john-mbaraga","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":19}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36881"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=36881"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=36881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}